Such a high-pressure discharge lamp has been disclosed, for example, in WO 00/59269. This laid-open specification describes a high-pressure discharge lamp for a motor vehicle headlight. The high-pressure discharge lamp has a lamp base, in whose interior is arranged a pulse starting apparatus for the purpose of starting the gas discharge in the high-pressure discharge lamp and which is surrounded by a metal housing lying at ground reference potential and acting as an electromagnetic shield. In addition, the high-pressure discharge lamp has a discharge vessel which has an end near to the base and an end remote from the base, a power supply line protruding out of the end remote from the base being passed back to the lamp base.
In order to start the gas discharge in the high-pressure discharge lamp, the power supply line, which is passed out of the end near to the base and is completely closed off by the lamp vessels and the lamp base, has high-voltage pulses of up to 30 kV applied to it by means of the pulse starting apparatus. It has been shown that, during the starting phase, a so-called kickback pulse occurs on the power supply line protruding out of the end, remote from the base, of the discharge vessel, said kickback pulse causing a voltage pulse having an amplitude of approximately 1 kV and a pulse duration of approximately 10 ns at the lamp connection connected to the abovementioned power supply line.